Klausner Sues Google, LG, Verizon, Others for Voicemail Patent

In what’s becoming an annual event, Klausner Technologies is again suing big companies for infringing on its voicemail patents.

The defendants this time are industry giants Google, LG Electronics and Verizon Communications. Also named in the suit are Citrix Systems, Comverse Technology and Embarq Holdings Co., a Klausner representative said.

Judah Klausner famously sued AOL in 2006 and sued Apple and AT&T last year, always settling for a large sum of money out of court.

The controversial patent is #5,572,576, “Telephone answering device linking displayed data with recorded audio message” – visual voicemail – filed in March 1994 and granted in November 1996.

Klausner’s name is also on patent #4,117,542, “Electronic pocket directory” filed in 1977 and granted in 1978. That is an early patent, but not the first, describing what’s now known as a PDA.

In both patents, Klausner assisted with business management while working with an engineer named Bob Hotto. They met as undergraduates at New York University in the mid-1970s.